November 20, 2025 • 32 mins
In this episode of Let’s Move to New Hampshire, we sit down with Amanda Grappone Osmer, fourth-generation owner of the iconic Grappone automotive family. For more than 100 years, Grappone has been a trusted name in New Hampshire, known for integrity, community service, and a no-pressure car-buying experience that attracts newcomers and longtime residents alike.
Amanda shares the remarkable history of her family’s immigrant beginnings, the evolution of the Grappone dealerships, and her vision as the new leader guiding the company into its next century. We discuss:
- How a small gas station became a 100-year NH legacy
- What sets Grappone’s sales experience apart (no negotiations, no commissions, no pressure)
- How the business adapted through major events, including COVID and EV shifts
- The values behind Grappone’s mission: integrity, kindness, respect
- Amanda’s passion for community, philanthropy, and building the 5th generation
Whether you’re moving to New Hampshire, exploring local businesses, or love stories of family entrepreneurship, this episode offers inspiration and insight into one of the Granite State’s most enduring companies.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Let's move to New Hampshire. I'm Mark Erickson. The name
Griponi and automobiles have been synonymous in the state of
New Hampshire for, OG, I don't know.
More than 100 years, literally, and you have to respect
anything that has made it more than 100 years. We
are joined now by Amanda Graponi Osmer. Hello, Amanda. Hey,
(00:21):
how are you today? I'm great. Talk a little bit
about the legacy of your family and, and the relationship
with automobiles.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Sure, yeah, you said the term OG. I use that
at work to describe the
The Original Graponi, who were my great grandparents, uh, they,
they were Southern Italian immigrants and kind of lived the
American dream, which is really fun for me to research.
And over the past couple of years, I've been doing
a lot of diving into family history. And I'll say
after understanding just what it took for them to survive,
(00:51):
to get here to the US and to survive and
to open a little gas station,
And then to somehow turn it into what it is today, um,
it's remarkable. I'm, I'm really, really proud to be part
of it.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
And
while the Graponi name has been on several dealerships over,
over the years, and, and also several different family members
have been involved, now we, we are Grippponi Ford and
Honda in Bowe and Grippponi Mazda in Concord, and, and
it's all you, isn't it?
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Yeah, yeah, as of last week, actually, um, early November,
I'm not sure when this airs, but early November is
when my dad and I signed paperwork to fully transition
down to the 4th generation, which is me. And, um, yeah,
it's been, uh, it's been quite a roller coaster, but
here we are. Well,
Speaker 1 (01:32):
congratulations on the, on the new arrangement with the Griponi
dealerships around the state.
What's your first memory of, of hanging around a dealership
and do you remember which dealership it
was?
Speaker 2 (01:45):
I do. I was at the Ford, our Ford store,
John Graponi Ford, and I, I probably was something like
6 or 7 years old. And
I remember walking past the parts department and being too
afraid to ask what happened in parts, because then I
passed by our body shop, and I, then I got
really scared and I was like, Well, if there are
parts and there are bodies, I don't know that I'm
(02:05):
supposed to be here. So, that's my earliest memory.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
That's actually very funny.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
It turns out it's totally legit.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
Here I was thinking the body shop was making some
noise and it was maybe a little frightening for a
6 year old, but no, you, you went a whole
other way on me.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Well, the parts department was located right next to the
body shop, so I mean, I put 2 and 2 together.
I was like, boy, these Italians, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
What, what are some of the the moments over the
past 100 years that that have involved many family members
and have been milestones and perhaps stepping stones for theriponi businesses?
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Sure. I mean, I never got to know my great grandparents, unfortunately,
but I knew my grandfather's generation. I knew him, I
knew a couple of his brothers, um, but I knew
my grandfather best because he and I were able to
work together side by side for many years. And I
would just say, you know, one of the big things,
especially in a family business for people listening who are
involved in family business, you know, it's not always cupcakes
(03:12):
and balloons. Um, so, so, sometimes you gotta go through
some family, um, you know, what's the word?
Drama. There it is. Drama to, to get to the
other side and to sort of, you know, carry on
with the next chapter. So for my grandfather, that meant
he parted ways with his brothers way back in the
probably late 60s. And then the riponi stayed in Concord
(03:35):
with certain dealerships. And then my grandfather, um, he was
on the other side of Concord, and then eventually moved
to Bow around 1970. So there were sort of two
different factions. And that happened in the second generation. And
then my dad and brother came into it, and his brother, sorry,
came into it.
Um, so they all worked, they worked with their dad,
and then my brother and I came in. So, at
one point, there was my grandfather, my dad, my uncle,
(03:56):
my brother, and me all on site. Um, and that
didn't last for too long because my uncle retired. But, uh,
I would say, you know, more, in more recent history,
some of the things that really stand out in my
mind are during COVID, you know, we, uh, obviously, everybody
was in a very strained frame of mind during COVID,
but we were deemed
Until pretty early on. So we never closed for even
(04:16):
a day. Um, but when we had outbreaks or concerns
or things like that, you know, we did what everybody did. We,
we got real inventive and creative, and we had to
at some point, shut down a couple of our dealerships
and move everybody to one dealership, and then run different shifts. And,
you know, just whatever it took to put the team
first and try to keep them safe, and our guests
obviously as well. But
(04:37):
For me, I think the, the most formative part of
my time as 4th generation has been really just solidifying, like,
what's our mission? Why, why are we who we are?
And that came about, about 15 years ago when we
got together and, and we asked a bunch of our
managers to come in on a Sunday, and, uh, we're
closed on Sunday for family time, but this is a
special event. We said, you know, we're gonna do some
(04:59):
fun teambuilding activities, but then we have something we need
you to help us with. And
That, uh, that was the shaping of our mission, our
current mission statement, which we needed their input. We needed
to understand like, yeah, we think we know what riponi is,
but what do you think it is? And so we
did this great exercise. We had this big long blank wall.
We hadn't quite opened up our Toyota store yet, um,
(05:19):
for the renovation.
So we had an unfinished wall, and we gave everybody
these sticky notes and pens, and we said, just jot
down a word or a small short phrase that helps
to encapsulate what Graponi means to you. And then we had,
I don't know, maybe 30 managers, some of whom had
been there 30 or 40 years, go up and just
put all these sticky notes up on the wall. And
what really jumped out at us when we started to
(05:41):
categorize them into, into light categories.
was there were only 3 words that everybody kept repeating
over and over in various ways, and they were integrity, kindness,
and respect. And so for me, helping to be part
of that day where we actually formed a mission statement,
and our, our current mission is to build lifelong relationships
by serving with integrity, kindness, and respect. That was probably
(06:02):
one of my favorite moments in the past 28 years.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
Yeah, and you're terming yourself as the 4th generation, and,
and you just talked about the mission statement for the
Grappponi Group. Other than that, what else will you take
from the 3rd generation? What, what's going to stick with
you from, from the previous generation?
Speaker 2 (06:22):
You know, my dad was always, I I characterized him
as not your typical car dealer. I've met a lot
of car dealers at different meetings and auto shows and
things like that, and there can be, not always, of course,
but there can be a strain of just sort of
self importance or ego, and that's never been my dad.
(06:42):
So I, you know, I'll take from him.
Um, a couple of phrases that he likes to throw around.
One is, don't let yesterday use up today. Um, just,
you know, hit the reset button every morning, and no
matter how difficult things get, you, you really just have
to take a deep breath, be grateful for what you have,
and then approach the day with a, like a fresh perspective.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
There is something freeing about starting a day with a
clean slate, isn't there? Sure is.
Talk a little bit about your customer base, because it
isn't just New Hampshire. You, you serve folks from surrounding
states and have for years.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
Mhm. Yeah, yeah, I mean, I think once, once we
had set ourselves apart about 12 years ago or 13
years ago now, um, with the way that we sell,
and let me just explain that a little bit, is
13 years ago, we made a pretty big leap, um,
at the time, it was pretty bold, to say, you
know what, we're not gonna do the negotiation thing, we're
actually gonna advertise our prices online.
So you know what they are, which means the competition
(07:37):
also knows what the prices are. And that's a risk,
but we took it, and we, we said, you know,
in fairness to people and treating them with integrity and
kindness and respect, we feel that we have to do
business in a certain way. So we changed our pricing model,
we changed how we paid our staff. Um, we, we
do not pay straight commission.
And then we got rid of all of our finance departments,
because that, we had a customer council at the time,
(07:59):
before we adopted the term guest, and customer council flows nicely.
Love some alliteration. Um, but they, they told us, they
were like, you know, what we hate the most is
having to sit in the finance.
Its office and we think we know what our payment
is because we've had a great relationship maybe with a salesperson,
but then we go into the FNI guy's office and
all of a sudden everything goes upside down and the
(08:20):
payment gets higher and we may go home and sometimes
not even realize what we signed or what we bought and.
And that just like really left a huge impression on
me is for our customers to voice that, and they
use the language we hate, you know, we don't, we
don't typically use that language at work, but they specifically
were like, nope, that's the absolute worst part of the process.
If you could get rid of that, we'd really appreciate it.
(08:41):
So we did. We got rid of finance, the finance, um, departments,
not to say we can't finance, we absolutely do, but
we just handle it in a different way. Our product
specialists are the ones who handle, um, all the paperwork,
you know, start.
Finished, and they work with the guests to understand, OK,
does it make sense for you to have gap insurance?
If it doesn't, we're not gonna talk about it. Does
it make sense for you to protect yourself with an
(09:02):
extended service contract? OK, in this case, it does, let's
review some pricing. So, it's really very highly relational, also
the way that we, um, deal with used car appraisals.
We involve the guests, we walk around the vehicle with them,
we take pictures, we ask them questions, like, tell us
what makes this car worth more. Did you just do
Brakes that we can't see, you know, from with the
naked eye. Did you have anything else done recently? So
(09:25):
we really wanted to be highly relational, highly interactive, and
for that reason, I think once our reputation starts to spread,
that there's a way of buying cars that can make
people actually feel comfortable and they feel like they want
to be part of the process, um, that crosses state
lines pretty quickly. So I, I think that's a huge
part of why we have people drive past other dealerships
(09:45):
and come to us.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
Parts of America have 4 seasons, but here in New England,
we really have 4 seasons, and, and that, that makes things,
I think, perhaps a little trickier for the customer because
the customer needs a vehicle that that probably does need
all wheel drive, but gee, you know, I'd love to
have a convertible in the summer and nobody makes an
all-wheel drive convertible kind of thing. How do you address
(10:09):
the issue of, of what the customers need in a
place like New England?
Speaker 2 (10:15):
Yeah, I mean, there are, there's some people who absolutely
can afford to have multiple vehicles, and, hey, we're happy
to sell the multiple vehicles. That's the easy part. Um,
but truly, it really, I think you, you hit the
nail on the head when you said, how do we
help them to understand what they need. Um, it really
does come down to just asking some pretty good questions
that we have to ask over and over. And the
(10:35):
average consumer isn't in regularly buying a vehicle. Like, we're
there every single day, so we get to see which
questions make sense, and obviously
All wheel drives a really big deal around here. Um,
fuel economy, I mean, hybrids have been super popular, more
so than EVs, obviously, that's been in the news quite
a bit. Um, but if you can get a hybrid
all-wheel drive, and we offer those, that's kind of the
(10:55):
sweet spot. Um, you know, for me, that's what I drive.
I have a, a Mazda CX50 that's a hybrid, and
it's an all-wheel drive. Handles great in the snow, but
it gets almost 40 miles to the gallon. So, for me,
that fits my lifestyle. I have to have it be
able to be a little bit adventurous and, um, handle well, but,
you know,
I, I don't have the 3 car seats anymore, so
I don't need the extra seat, the extra row. So,
(11:16):
it's really just kind of, uh, making sure that we
are meeting the guests where they're at, figuring out what
do you actually need, and if you're not sure, like,
please let us help you. Cause, because the way that
we pay our sales staff, people should never walk away
feeling badly if they ended up not buying something. Like,
we truly are there to help, to guide and to
counsel people. Um, you know, and then that way, we
(11:38):
hope it leads to some referrals, which
the best kind of advertisement you can get is somebody
just saying to a neighbor or a friend or a
family member, Hey, you know, I had the best possible
experience I could have had. You got to go see
so and so down at the Ford store or whatever. Um, yeah.
So I think that just by, again, being relational and
hiring people on, on my end, like my job is
(11:59):
to make sure that we have a team of people
who truly care about serving other people and who are
not there just because they want to try to maximize
profitability on the highest possible commission.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
Take a look at the last 5 years of the
automotive business. What's been the biggest change that you've seen?
Speaker 2 (12:16):
Boy, I mean, obviously EV regulations, that's been a huge one, and,
you know, it's, it's tough because the manufacturers, as much
as they wanna be able to respond and react overnight,
you can't. If you're trying to set up, if you
put all your ducks in the EV basket, and you
start to build EV plants and do all these things,
and you, you've got your factories tooled up that way,
(12:36):
you can't flip a switch overnight if all of a
sudden the
says this versus that, you know, that's, that's impossible. So,
that's been a challenge. Um, EV adoption's been real tricky
here in the Northeast. I mean, the Boston region, greater
Boston's a little bit different, but like where we live,
where there can be considerable distances between charging stations, especially
(12:57):
the DC fast chargers. We have them at Cripone Ford, um,
which is right at the junction of 89 and 93.
That's a great location. But, you know, it can be
sketchy if you want to go watch the eclipse, the,
the solar eclipse. And, you know, how many, how many
EVs were stranded on the side of the road. Anecdotally,
somebody who drove up there and watched it, told me
he drove past 3 Teslas on the way back. And
(13:19):
I'm not picking on Tesla, they just happened to be Teslas,
but they couldn't make it back because there were no
EV charging stations where they needed them. So that's been
a challenge.
Plus the range drops dramatically in the winter months. It's very,
very cold here, which draws more on the batteries. So, that's,
you know, you go from maybe 250 mile range to
150 mile range. And that's truly, I mean, for someone
(13:39):
who's an adventurer, that's not enough. It's really not enough. So, there's,
that's been a challenge. I would say, for me, the
biggest sort of scariest gorilla in the room is AI.
Just trying to figure out, you know, how is it
already working in ways that we don't even know. It's
obviously in the background, you know, it's obviously doing things.
It's probably recording this conversation right now and making a
(14:01):
transcript for you. You know, there are wonderful applications for AI,
but
What about the not so wonderful application? So, that's what
we've been really trying to grapple with is how is
it going to show up in our lives, whether we
like it or not, and how do we use it
to the, the guest's greatest advantage. Like, you know, we,
as one example, we had an AI phone system, which
(14:22):
I mean, some people didn't mind it, but other people
were just like, This is horrible. I need to talk
to a person. So we took it out. We don't
have an AI phone system at the moment, because we
don't feel like it's the best possible experience for the guests,
which is a bummer because, I mean, it, it truly,
in theory, should be a great setup because it prevents
all of our service advisor.
and other people from being distracted by incoming phone calls
(14:45):
so that they can serve the people in front of them. So,
I like it conceptually, but, uh, in practice, it was just,
you know, it was aggravating people, and that's not why
we're in business, is to aggravate people. So, so AI
is a big looming question mark for me. Um, you know,
there are bad actors out there. I like to focus
on what we can use it for that is positive
and helpful, um, but again, it's just, it's a world
(15:07):
unto itself, and I can't claim to understand it.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
You used an example that I was actually going to
use in the 2024 solar eclipse. I was involved in
that from a broadcasting standpoint, and I found myself in
the odd position of talking to state of New Hampshire
tourism officials who were saying, for the record, if you
have an EV don't.
Come to the eclipse because the infrastructure simply is not there.
(15:33):
Do you have an idea of when the infrastructure might
be to the point where, all right, every gas station
has got an EV charging station and they're more commonplace
than than they are now?
Speaker 2 (15:45):
You know, that is a great question. I would say
considering that the brakes have been pumped really hard on
EVs just in terms of, you know, having the federal
tax credits taken away.
I feel like we're going in the opposite direction. Um, it's,
it doesn't seem like it's gonna happen anytime soon, because
it has to be driven by consumer demand. And you
can only do so, so much by government mandate, but
(16:07):
if people in the end of the day are like,
I'm not putting my dollars into EV, then we're not
gonna build EV infrastructure. It has to be.
Something that the general public wants and needs. And right now,
I think we've just been riding this wave of regulatory stuff,
where we're like, we don't have a choice. We, you know,
all these manufacturers have to do certain things based on
(16:28):
cafe standards and all these other requirements, and that's the
only reason they're doing it. They're not doing it because
guests are, you know, consumers are clamoring, at least not
in our region of the world. They're not clamoring for 100% electric.
I know some people are, for sure, but they're the
vast minority.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
Let's look ahead to say the next 5 years. What
do you see happening for the next 5 years in, in,
in any or all of your 3 dealerships?
Speaker 2 (16:54):
Yeah, for me, I mean, this is a time of stabilization. Obviously,
we've got some awesome bank loans and whatnot, mortgage or
two that, that need to be attended to, and, you know,
this is just, it's the next round of sort of,
every time we do something like this, I think of
it as a startup, and
I don't have any problem in my mind separating the
(17:17):
fact that we're 101 years old from the fact that
it really feels like a startup, and it has to
be treated as such. And the most recent example I
can give you, back in 2022, I bought the Mazda
franchise for my dad. Um, and my, just as a note,
my brother and I, I had mentioned, were in the business,
and he passed away at age 35. So we retired
his shares, which made just my dad and me.
The owners, but my dad was majority shareholder for the
(17:39):
entire time, so I could, you know, buy some more
shares slowly, but it never got me into a, a
majority position. So, with Mazda, I decided, you know what,
they need a new building, and this is a classic
case of a franchise comes to you and says, Listen,
we're not renewing your dealer agreement if you don't do
certain things, which is fine, that's within their purview. And listen,
we have that understanding with them, you know, we partner
(18:01):
with them.
Um, and for Mazda, I just had this gut feeling,
you know what? Mazda's going in a direction that it's
gonna be really hard for them to get there, but
if they can pull it off, I'm a huge fan.
And we are almost the oldest Mazda dealer in the country. Um,
we've been operational in the same family, under the same
family ownership since 1973.
And Mazda only came to the US in 1970. So,
(18:22):
I'm like, we have way deep roots with Mazda. So
my dad, you know, we didn't agree on, do we
spend a chunk of money to build a new facility,
but we had this piece of property in, in Concord,
and it was being used as a wholesale auction site,
not its best and highest use by any stretch.
And I just said, Listen, let me just go for it.
If I buy this from you, Dad, and it fails,
it's not your problem. It'll be on me. So that
(18:43):
was the kicker. He's like, OK. I might be paraphrasing.
I might be paraphrasing. Um, but yeah, so that I
bought Mazda in 2022, uh, and then, uh, from then on,
you know, I was anxious to buy the other dealerships,
and my dad, he came to me a few years
ago and
He kind of sideswiped me by saying, or blindsided is
(19:04):
probably the better way. He didn't actually hit me with
a car. He, he blindsided me by saying he, he
wanted to sell everything. And I, I was shocked. I just, because,
you know, I've been working at this for, at that
0.25 years, and I just didn't see that coming. So,
I was like, All right, well, I want to sell nothing,
so I guess this is the meaning of negotiation. So
we worked hard for, uh, 2.5 years to try to
(19:26):
figure out, you know, how do we
Especially for me, you know, keep the Griponi name on it,
keep that Griponi way of being attached to how we
do things, and of course I could have gotten some
private equity money, maybe found a venture capitalist, partnered with
other dealers, I could have done so many things to
make this a heck of a lot easier.
But call me stubborn, and I've been called that many times.
(19:48):
It just mattered so much to me, especially in light
of researching my great grandparents and their struggles and efforts,
and my grandparents and everybody else. I just thought, you
know what? We still have so much of a story
to tell. This is still Rponi. So, it turned out
we needed just to help my parents meet their retirement goals,
we needed to sell a couple franchises. So we ended
up selling Hyundai and Toyota, um, within the last 6 weeks,
(20:11):
and
That's surely been bittersweet. I mean, I, it's very hard
to say goodbye to 100 people who I work closely with,
and really, you know, based on our mission statement of
trying to create lifelong relationships, we put our team members first,
and that's something I take really seriously. So, so it
hasn't been easy, but, you know, I mean, at some point,
I'll come up for air and realize, OK, we did it. We're,
(20:31):
we're 5th gen is, is in the wings, 4th gen
is at the wheel, and we're gonna be OK, you know.
But right now it's just like, nose to the grindstone,
just work it out and
We have an awesome team at work, so I just,
my job is to support them.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
You mentioned the whole list of things that you could
have done, uh, as, as your dad was winding down his,
his career in the car business and, and what you
didn't mention was you could have sold everything and, and
cashed out. You, you could have cashed out with, I'm
sure what would have been a pretty nice payday, but
you didn't want to go that route.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
No, you know, I've never been, uh, motivated by money. Um, I'm,
I'm extremely motivated by helping to, helping people to reach
their potential. And I'm like, not, I'm a terrible frontline manager.
Let me just put that out there. Everybody at work agrees. Like,
we all know that that's not my job. But I,
what I love is trying to put people in place
(21:28):
who can be the awesome frontline manager, who can help
to lift up all the people around them. So, like,
my job is to be the cheerleader for my executive team.
And I think I'm a good, I think I do
a good job at that, um, but, you know, I just, I,
there are so many types of toxic stress in this world,
and I just don't want work to be one of them.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
You, you said just now that you were a car
dealer that has never been interested in money. You, you
realize I'm recording this, right? Yeah,
Speaker 2 (21:56):
feel free to play that. OK,
Speaker 1 (21:59):
just wanted to be sure.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
Just so we're all clear, money has its purpose. It needs, we, we,
it needs to lubricate the machine, right? We all, and
this is the thing about toxic stress. I want people,
you know, during COVID, we did not mark up our,
our prices over MSRP. Everybody around us seems to have
done that. Um,
I, I did a calculation one time that if we
(22:23):
had charged $2500 extra, which is, was the kind of
the going rate, some of it was way more over
MSRP on every car we sold during that COVID period,
it would've paid for my $12 million Mazda building. And
that's the only time I did that calculation, cause I'm like,
I never should have done that, because I was like, Oh,
this is why, this is why people charge people more money.
But honestly, just in my heart, uh, we've been charging
(22:45):
so far below MSRP for so many years that
That jump for consumers during COVID from what they'd been
used to up to MSRP was already pretty hefty. Never
mind groceries and every other, you know, everyday items. Like, uh, uh,
we have a role to play, and I, I truly
feel like if we can
If we can limit the amount of stress at work
(23:08):
and allow people to go home just better human beings,
better spouses and parents and neighbors and partners, that is like,
job well done for me. OK? That's, that's how I define,
did I do my job today or didn't I? And
part of that too, extends out to the community. Like, why,
just because I can, Should I charge $2500 to $5000 more?
To that person who now, by the way, 5 years in,
(23:31):
if your loans come in due, you're so upside down. Like, the,
it's not funny. It's, it, it, it casts a, a
lasting ripple effect. So, I really, I just feel strongly
that the, in the 4th generation of our company, if
we can really imbue that message into our team, and
our guests in our community,
Like, just take care of each other. It's that simple.
(23:51):
Just be nice and take care of each other, and
don't be greedy, for heaven's sake. Like, stop being greedy, everybody.
And things are just so much easier. And so I've
raised the 5th generation very much so that if they
choose to come into the business, and my son is
currently studying at college to business and finance, to come
in to follow me, hopefully.
And, you know, he's 19, or how old, yeah, he's 19.
(24:12):
So he, anything could change in the next few years,
but he worked there this summer and loved it. And
he was raised to understand, you put people first. Like,
I don't care if you're the slickest finance guy in
the world. I need your heart to be in the
right place for you to be able to take this
business over.
So, we're in good shape. I have the right heart.
My son has the right heart. If my daughters come
into it, they've got the right heart. Um, you know,
I feel really good I'm confident about the 5th generation.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
All right, this is not a business question and this
is not a money question, but as the current steward
of the Griponi name, what keeps you awake at night?
What do you worry about?
Speaker 2 (24:47):
Um, I mean, there's the obvious, like, servicing debt, but
that's boring. Uh, so let's see. What keeps me awake
at night. Um, I can count on one hand, like the,
the times over my career, and it's about 30 years now, roughly,
that I've been in the auto industry, that I didn't
(25:07):
treat someone the right way, and that really bothers me. That,
for sure, keeps me awake. And it's also a great
motivator to not mistreat someone because
I know I'll sleep better. Like, sometimes, you know, situationally,
if I say something that I shouldn't cause I didn't
think first, or I do something that I really thought
was coming from the right place, but in hindsight, I
was like, Well, you didn't consider X, Y, and Z. Uh,
(25:29):
that really bothers me. So, I, I would very much
like to be remembered as someone who cared about her team. And, um, yeah. So,
if I, if it's ever the case that people don't
feel cared about by me, that, that's what keeps me up.
Speaker 1 (25:43):
You've talked a lot about your family, uh, both the,
the 3rd generation and the 5th generation, and, and the
Gripone name has been slapped on a lot of buildings
for 100+ years now in the state of New Hampshire. Uh,
the Gripone legacy is so important to you. You've actually
written a book about the family history.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
I did, yeah. You know, for the 100th anniversary, I
was like, Well, what can I do that's like a
little bit special, but everybody knows this is a really
big deal. And obviously, we could have gotten, you know,
nice jackets or $100 bills or something, you know, they're,
they're the things that like were kind of low hanging fruit.
Then I asked myself, like, what would it, what would
it take if you actually could write a book about
(26:25):
1924 to 2024, and really just categorize, um, I meant
to say catalog, sorry, catalog all that history.
And I started to write it, and I realized, oh
my gosh, there's such a backstory here that I didn't
even know when I started to research it. So the
book actually starts in 1730 with my 5th great grandfather, maybe, uh,
(26:47):
back in southern Italy. He was a stonecutter, and the
other side of the
Family as well. They were peasant farmers. And then it
just traces my great grandparents, like, how did they ever,
how did they meet? How did they get to the US?
How did they raise their kids and all that. And
so the book actually ends at 1924, where I thought
it was going to begin. And the book I'm working
on now will take, you know, will kind of cover
(27:08):
the rest of history. But, but what I was able
to hand to my team members on the night of
our 100th anniversary party was that book. It was like,
Here's our roots. Here's where we come from. And
I just want people to understand, like, there are statistically speaking,
there are a lot of reasons for us not to exist.
You know, 4th generation family business is hard enough, but
especially in the automotive space with all the consolidation we
(27:29):
have and everything else that challenges us on a daily basis.
And so I just want my team to really be
able to wear that with a badge of pride. Like,
you know what? It's no joke that we've been here
101 years now, and it's not by accident. We have
to show up every day, and we have to have
a purpose, and we have to fulfill it. And
And that's what I, I love going to work because
(27:49):
I get to go to a meeting in a couple
hours from now, and I just can't wait to see
my team because they are excited because they're performing well,
and they're taking care of things. And, like, I can't
ask for anything more.
Speaker 1 (28:02):
Without talking about the automotive business at all, talk about
some of the other things that that the Propone name
is involved with and some of the other things that
your company does.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
Sure. Um, you know, I think we're, it's, uh, for
some people, the, the word roponi almost conjures up images of, uh,
community service, as much or more so than it does
cars and trucks. Um, there's just, it's always been part
of the fabric of, of the family and the business
to just help.
Other people in need. And I start with something as
simple as my great grandmother, you know, the stories I
(28:36):
heard of her planting an extra big garden, and I'm
sure a lot of immigrant families did this, but they
lived in a, in a close, you know, Italian north, uh, um,
community in the North Concord, and if you're familiar with
Concord at all.
And, uh, they had lots of Italian neighbors and the
occasional hobo who would stop by, and you know other
people who just needed food, and despite them having 7
(28:57):
kids of their own, they always would try to have
extra for other people. And my grandfather absolutely shared that mentality,
and
You know, he would always, I have a little, little
blurb in the book about it, how every time I
went to visit him in his office at Ford, he
would offer me, like, open the closet, take whatever you want.
It's like expired Pepsis and stuff, but he always made
(29:18):
sure that he had something for us. And that was,
I'm sure, also a product of him being a child of,
of the Depression. You know, he grew up, he and
my grandmother both were born in 1919.
So they had a front row seat to what is
it like to maybe not be able to eat when
you want to eat. And, uh, he was always, it
mattered very much to him that people were fed. So
whenever there was a company barbecue or whatever, he'd like,
(29:41):
joke with the, not even joke, cause like, he would
confide in the staff, like, my wife's not here. I'm
gonna take an extra.
For a hot dog. And, and he would, he would
sort of like, you know, feel bad about it, but
they're like, Mr. Graponi, you paid for the hot dogs.
And he's like, Oh, OK, I can take an extra one,
you know. He was just super down to earth. You know,
by the time I knew him, obviously, he, I think
(30:02):
some of the fire had gone out of him a
little bit, but he was still, I mean, I just
wish we could do business the way he used to
do business. Um, just a handshake and be a person
of your word. And I try to do that every day,
but it turns out you need some
You need paperwork signed and all that other fun stuff
when you buy a car, but it just did seem
like it was a bit easier to transact some business
(30:22):
back then. Uh, yeah, so I think just, just being
able to follow their lead. My parents were always very
very philanthropic, um, they continue to be, and
I was just raised in a house where parents served
on boards, and you hosted fundraising parties and all sorts
of stuff. And I just, that was my normal day.
And I, I didn't know that other kids didn't grow
(30:43):
up like that until I met kids who didn't grow
up like that. And then I realized, OK, like this,
they've made this a priority. It's, it's special to them,
and it definitely is special to me. You know, we
give 5% of our net profit annually to charity, and
that's something that's a big deal for us, and it's
part of our business plan.
Um, so we're involved in a lot of things around
the state, but, um, you know, most especially, I just,
(31:04):
I wanna make sure my team is taken care of.
Anytime they come to us with, hey, my son or
daughter or my grandchild has this going on, we always
say yes. We always try to support our team first,
and I think that, that sends a, an important impactful message,
because then hopefully it helps them to see, you know, how,
how it feels good to help other people. So if
they're not in the position to volunteer or to donate,
(31:26):
you know, they can do it through our volunteer program,
and
They get the day paid to go do something fun
that they wanna do, and then a check is uh
a $250 check is made out to the organization in
their honor, so that
So that they can get the feeling of what it's
like to give. So, there are a lot of ways
of helping, um, and I just, you know, I think
for us, no matter what we sell or don't sell,
(31:49):
if we've sold Toyota, but we get Mazda and Ford
and Honda, like, it doesn't matter what the nameplate is, it,
it matters to me that, that the feeling that, that is,
that comes along with serving others. Um, that's, that's what
matters most.
Speaker 1 (32:02):
I have never considered writing an autobiography because there's absolutely
no interest in in my life story, but were I
to do it, I'm going to use the title The
Occasional Hobo.
Speaker 2 (32:13):
OK.
You have my full permission. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (32:20):
The website is riponi.com.riponi.com can, can link you to all
three dealerships. Amanda Graponi, Osmer, honestly, I interview a lot
of people in the course of any given week, but
rarely do I have an interview that flows so nicely
and so easily, and thank you for being you. Oh,
Speaker 2 (32:37):
well, thank you so much. I really had fun. Thanks
a lot. For
Speaker 1 (32:40):
Let's Move to New Hampshire, I'm Mark Erickson.
Let's move to New Hampshire. I'm Mark Erickson. The name
Griponi and automobiles have been synonymous in the state of
New Hampshire for, OG, I don't know.
More than 100 years, literally, and you have to respect
anything that has made it more than 100 years. We
are joined now by Amanda Graponi Osmer. Hello, Amanda. Hey,
(00:21):
how are you today? I'm great. Talk a little bit
about the legacy of your family and, and the relationship
with automobiles.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Sure, yeah, you said the term OG. I use that
at work to describe the
The Original Graponi, who were my great grandparents, uh, they,
they were Southern Italian immigrants and kind of lived the
American dream, which is really fun for me to research.
And over the past couple of years, I've been doing
a lot of diving into family history. And I'll say
after understanding just what it took for them to survive,
(00:51):
to get here to the US and to survive and
to open a little gas station,
And then to somehow turn it into what it is today, um,
it's remarkable. I'm, I'm really, really proud to be part
of it.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
And
while the Graponi name has been on several dealerships over,
over the years, and, and also several different family members
have been involved, now we, we are Grippponi Ford and
Honda in Bowe and Grippponi Mazda in Concord, and, and
it's all you, isn't it?
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Yeah, yeah, as of last week, actually, um, early November,
I'm not sure when this airs, but early November is
when my dad and I signed paperwork to fully transition
down to the 4th generation, which is me. And, um, yeah,
it's been, uh, it's been quite a roller coaster, but
here we are. Well,
Speaker 1 (01:32):
congratulations on the, on the new arrangement with the Griponi
dealerships around the state.
What's your first memory of, of hanging around a dealership
and do you remember which dealership it
was?
Speaker 2 (01:45):
I do. I was at the Ford, our Ford store,
John Graponi Ford, and I, I probably was something like
6 or 7 years old. And
I remember walking past the parts department and being too
afraid to ask what happened in parts, because then I
passed by our body shop, and I, then I got
really scared and I was like, Well, if there are
parts and there are bodies, I don't know that I'm
(02:05):
supposed to be here. So, that's my earliest memory.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
That's actually very funny.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
It turns out it's totally legit.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
Here I was thinking the body shop was making some
noise and it was maybe a little frightening for a
6 year old, but no, you, you went a whole
other way on me.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Well, the parts department was located right next to the
body shop, so I mean, I put 2 and 2 together.
I was like, boy, these Italians, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
What, what are some of the the moments over the
past 100 years that that have involved many family members
and have been milestones and perhaps stepping stones for theriponi businesses?
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Sure. I mean, I never got to know my great grandparents, unfortunately,
but I knew my grandfather's generation. I knew him, I
knew a couple of his brothers, um, but I knew
my grandfather best because he and I were able to
work together side by side for many years. And I
would just say, you know, one of the big things,
especially in a family business for people listening who are
involved in family business, you know, it's not always cupcakes
(03:12):
and balloons. Um, so, so, sometimes you gotta go through
some family, um, you know, what's the word?
Drama. There it is. Drama to, to get to the
other side and to sort of, you know, carry on
with the next chapter. So for my grandfather, that meant
he parted ways with his brothers way back in the
probably late 60s. And then the riponi stayed in Concord
(03:35):
with certain dealerships. And then my grandfather, um, he was
on the other side of Concord, and then eventually moved
to Bow around 1970. So there were sort of two
different factions. And that happened in the second generation. And
then my dad and brother came into it, and his brother, sorry,
came into it.
Um, so they all worked, they worked with their dad,
and then my brother and I came in. So, at
one point, there was my grandfather, my dad, my uncle,
(03:56):
my brother, and me all on site. Um, and that
didn't last for too long because my uncle retired. But, uh,
I would say, you know, more, in more recent history,
some of the things that really stand out in my
mind are during COVID, you know, we, uh, obviously, everybody
was in a very strained frame of mind during COVID,
but we were deemed
Until pretty early on. So we never closed for even
(04:16):
a day. Um, but when we had outbreaks or concerns
or things like that, you know, we did what everybody did. We,
we got real inventive and creative, and we had to
at some point, shut down a couple of our dealerships
and move everybody to one dealership, and then run different shifts. And,
you know, just whatever it took to put the team
first and try to keep them safe, and our guests
obviously as well. But
(04:37):
For me, I think the, the most formative part of
my time as 4th generation has been really just solidifying, like,
what's our mission? Why, why are we who we are?
And that came about, about 15 years ago when we
got together and, and we asked a bunch of our
managers to come in on a Sunday, and, uh, we're
closed on Sunday for family time, but this is a
special event. We said, you know, we're gonna do some
(04:59):
fun teambuilding activities, but then we have something we need
you to help us with. And
That, uh, that was the shaping of our mission, our
current mission statement, which we needed their input. We needed
to understand like, yeah, we think we know what riponi is,
but what do you think it is? And so we
did this great exercise. We had this big long blank wall.
We hadn't quite opened up our Toyota store yet, um,
(05:19):
for the renovation.
So we had an unfinished wall, and we gave everybody
these sticky notes and pens, and we said, just jot
down a word or a small short phrase that helps
to encapsulate what Graponi means to you. And then we had,
I don't know, maybe 30 managers, some of whom had
been there 30 or 40 years, go up and just
put all these sticky notes up on the wall. And
what really jumped out at us when we started to
(05:41):
categorize them into, into light categories.
was there were only 3 words that everybody kept repeating
over and over in various ways, and they were integrity, kindness,
and respect. And so for me, helping to be part
of that day where we actually formed a mission statement,
and our, our current mission is to build lifelong relationships
by serving with integrity, kindness, and respect. That was probably
(06:02):
one of my favorite moments in the past 28 years.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
Yeah, and you're terming yourself as the 4th generation, and,
and you just talked about the mission statement for the
Grappponi Group. Other than that, what else will you take
from the 3rd generation? What, what's going to stick with
you from, from the previous generation?
Speaker 2 (06:22):
You know, my dad was always, I I characterized him
as not your typical car dealer. I've met a lot
of car dealers at different meetings and auto shows and
things like that, and there can be, not always, of course,
but there can be a strain of just sort of
self importance or ego, and that's never been my dad.
(06:42):
So I, you know, I'll take from him.
Um, a couple of phrases that he likes to throw around.
One is, don't let yesterday use up today. Um, just,
you know, hit the reset button every morning, and no
matter how difficult things get, you, you really just have
to take a deep breath, be grateful for what you have,
and then approach the day with a, like a fresh perspective.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
There is something freeing about starting a day with a
clean slate, isn't there? Sure is.
Talk a little bit about your customer base, because it
isn't just New Hampshire. You, you serve folks from surrounding
states and have for years.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
Mhm. Yeah, yeah, I mean, I think once, once we
had set ourselves apart about 12 years ago or 13
years ago now, um, with the way that we sell,
and let me just explain that a little bit, is
13 years ago, we made a pretty big leap, um,
at the time, it was pretty bold, to say, you
know what, we're not gonna do the negotiation thing, we're
actually gonna advertise our prices online.
So you know what they are, which means the competition
(07:37):
also knows what the prices are. And that's a risk,
but we took it, and we, we said, you know,
in fairness to people and treating them with integrity and
kindness and respect, we feel that we have to do
business in a certain way. So we changed our pricing model,
we changed how we paid our staff. Um, we, we
do not pay straight commission.
And then we got rid of all of our finance departments,
because that, we had a customer council at the time,
(07:59):
before we adopted the term guest, and customer council flows nicely.
Love some alliteration. Um, but they, they told us, they
were like, you know, what we hate the most is
having to sit in the finance.
Its office and we think we know what our payment
is because we've had a great relationship maybe with a salesperson,
but then we go into the FNI guy's office and
all of a sudden everything goes upside down and the
(08:20):
payment gets higher and we may go home and sometimes
not even realize what we signed or what we bought and.
And that just like really left a huge impression on
me is for our customers to voice that, and they
use the language we hate, you know, we don't, we
don't typically use that language at work, but they specifically
were like, nope, that's the absolute worst part of the process.
If you could get rid of that, we'd really appreciate it.
(08:41):
So we did. We got rid of finance, the finance, um, departments,
not to say we can't finance, we absolutely do, but
we just handle it in a different way. Our product
specialists are the ones who handle, um, all the paperwork,
you know, start.
Finished, and they work with the guests to understand, OK,
does it make sense for you to have gap insurance?
If it doesn't, we're not gonna talk about it. Does
it make sense for you to protect yourself with an
(09:02):
extended service contract? OK, in this case, it does, let's
review some pricing. So, it's really very highly relational, also
the way that we, um, deal with used car appraisals.
We involve the guests, we walk around the vehicle with them,
we take pictures, we ask them questions, like, tell us
what makes this car worth more. Did you just do
Brakes that we can't see, you know, from with the
naked eye. Did you have anything else done recently? So
(09:25):
we really wanted to be highly relational, highly interactive, and
for that reason, I think once our reputation starts to spread,
that there's a way of buying cars that can make
people actually feel comfortable and they feel like they want
to be part of the process, um, that crosses state
lines pretty quickly. So I, I think that's a huge
part of why we have people drive past other dealerships
(09:45):
and come to us.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
Parts of America have 4 seasons, but here in New England,
we really have 4 seasons, and, and that, that makes things,
I think, perhaps a little trickier for the customer because
the customer needs a vehicle that that probably does need
all wheel drive, but gee, you know, I'd love to
have a convertible in the summer and nobody makes an
all-wheel drive convertible kind of thing. How do you address
(10:09):
the issue of, of what the customers need in a
place like New England?
Speaker 2 (10:15):
Yeah, I mean, there are, there's some people who absolutely
can afford to have multiple vehicles, and, hey, we're happy
to sell the multiple vehicles. That's the easy part. Um,
but truly, it really, I think you, you hit the
nail on the head when you said, how do we
help them to understand what they need. Um, it really
does come down to just asking some pretty good questions
that we have to ask over and over. And the
(10:35):
average consumer isn't in regularly buying a vehicle. Like, we're
there every single day, so we get to see which
questions make sense, and obviously
All wheel drives a really big deal around here. Um,
fuel economy, I mean, hybrids have been super popular, more
so than EVs, obviously, that's been in the news quite
a bit. Um, but if you can get a hybrid
all-wheel drive, and we offer those, that's kind of the
(10:55):
sweet spot. Um, you know, for me, that's what I drive.
I have a, a Mazda CX50 that's a hybrid, and
it's an all-wheel drive. Handles great in the snow, but
it gets almost 40 miles to the gallon. So, for me,
that fits my lifestyle. I have to have it be
able to be a little bit adventurous and, um, handle well, but,
you know,
I, I don't have the 3 car seats anymore, so
I don't need the extra seat, the extra row. So,
(11:16):
it's really just kind of, uh, making sure that we
are meeting the guests where they're at, figuring out what
do you actually need, and if you're not sure, like,
please let us help you. Cause, because the way that
we pay our sales staff, people should never walk away
feeling badly if they ended up not buying something. Like,
we truly are there to help, to guide and to
counsel people. Um, you know, and then that way, we
(11:38):
hope it leads to some referrals, which
the best kind of advertisement you can get is somebody
just saying to a neighbor or a friend or a
family member, Hey, you know, I had the best possible
experience I could have had. You got to go see
so and so down at the Ford store or whatever. Um, yeah.
So I think that just by, again, being relational and
hiring people on, on my end, like my job is
(11:59):
to make sure that we have a team of people
who truly care about serving other people and who are
not there just because they want to try to maximize
profitability on the highest possible commission.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
Take a look at the last 5 years of the
automotive business. What's been the biggest change that you've seen?
Speaker 2 (12:16):
Boy, I mean, obviously EV regulations, that's been a huge one, and,
you know, it's, it's tough because the manufacturers, as much
as they wanna be able to respond and react overnight,
you can't. If you're trying to set up, if you
put all your ducks in the EV basket, and you
start to build EV plants and do all these things,
and you, you've got your factories tooled up that way,
(12:36):
you can't flip a switch overnight if all of a
sudden the
says this versus that, you know, that's, that's impossible. So,
that's been a challenge. Um, EV adoption's been real tricky
here in the Northeast. I mean, the Boston region, greater
Boston's a little bit different, but like where we live,
where there can be considerable distances between charging stations, especially
(12:57):
the DC fast chargers. We have them at Cripone Ford, um,
which is right at the junction of 89 and 93.
That's a great location. But, you know, it can be
sketchy if you want to go watch the eclipse, the,
the solar eclipse. And, you know, how many, how many
EVs were stranded on the side of the road. Anecdotally,
somebody who drove up there and watched it, told me
he drove past 3 Teslas on the way back. And
(13:19):
I'm not picking on Tesla, they just happened to be Teslas,
but they couldn't make it back because there were no
EV charging stations where they needed them. So that's been
a challenge.
Plus the range drops dramatically in the winter months. It's very,
very cold here, which draws more on the batteries. So, that's,
you know, you go from maybe 250 mile range to
150 mile range. And that's truly, I mean, for someone
(13:39):
who's an adventurer, that's not enough. It's really not enough. So, there's,
that's been a challenge. I would say, for me, the
biggest sort of scariest gorilla in the room is AI.
Just trying to figure out, you know, how is it
already working in ways that we don't even know. It's
obviously in the background, you know, it's obviously doing things.
It's probably recording this conversation right now and making a
(14:01):
transcript for you. You know, there are wonderful applications for AI,
but
What about the not so wonderful application? So, that's what
we've been really trying to grapple with is how is
it going to show up in our lives, whether we
like it or not, and how do we use it
to the, the guest's greatest advantage. Like, you know, we,
as one example, we had an AI phone system, which
(14:22):
I mean, some people didn't mind it, but other people
were just like, This is horrible. I need to talk
to a person. So we took it out. We don't
have an AI phone system at the moment, because we
don't feel like it's the best possible experience for the guests,
which is a bummer because, I mean, it, it truly,
in theory, should be a great setup because it prevents
all of our service advisor.
and other people from being distracted by incoming phone calls
(14:45):
so that they can serve the people in front of them. So,
I like it conceptually, but, uh, in practice, it was just,
you know, it was aggravating people, and that's not why
we're in business, is to aggravate people. So, so AI
is a big looming question mark for me. Um, you know,
there are bad actors out there. I like to focus
on what we can use it for that is positive
and helpful, um, but again, it's just, it's a world
(15:07):
unto itself, and I can't claim to understand it.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
You used an example that I was actually going to
use in the 2024 solar eclipse. I was involved in
that from a broadcasting standpoint, and I found myself in
the odd position of talking to state of New Hampshire
tourism officials who were saying, for the record, if you
have an EV don't.
Come to the eclipse because the infrastructure simply is not there.
(15:33):
Do you have an idea of when the infrastructure might
be to the point where, all right, every gas station
has got an EV charging station and they're more commonplace
than than they are now?
Speaker 2 (15:45):
You know, that is a great question. I would say
considering that the brakes have been pumped really hard on
EVs just in terms of, you know, having the federal
tax credits taken away.
I feel like we're going in the opposite direction. Um, it's,
it doesn't seem like it's gonna happen anytime soon, because
it has to be driven by consumer demand. And you
can only do so, so much by government mandate, but
(16:07):
if people in the end of the day are like,
I'm not putting my dollars into EV, then we're not
gonna build EV infrastructure. It has to be.
Something that the general public wants and needs. And right now,
I think we've just been riding this wave of regulatory stuff,
where we're like, we don't have a choice. We, you know,
all these manufacturers have to do certain things based on
(16:28):
cafe standards and all these other requirements, and that's the
only reason they're doing it. They're not doing it because
guests are, you know, consumers are clamoring, at least not
in our region of the world. They're not clamoring for 100% electric.
I know some people are, for sure, but they're the
vast minority.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
Let's look ahead to say the next 5 years. What
do you see happening for the next 5 years in, in,
in any or all of your 3 dealerships?
Speaker 2 (16:54):
Yeah, for me, I mean, this is a time of stabilization. Obviously,
we've got some awesome bank loans and whatnot, mortgage or
two that, that need to be attended to, and, you know,
this is just, it's the next round of sort of,
every time we do something like this, I think of
it as a startup, and
I don't have any problem in my mind separating the
(17:17):
fact that we're 101 years old from the fact that
it really feels like a startup, and it has to
be treated as such. And the most recent example I
can give you, back in 2022, I bought the Mazda
franchise for my dad. Um, and my, just as a note,
my brother and I, I had mentioned, were in the business,
and he passed away at age 35. So we retired
his shares, which made just my dad and me.
The owners, but my dad was majority shareholder for the
(17:39):
entire time, so I could, you know, buy some more
shares slowly, but it never got me into a, a
majority position. So, with Mazda, I decided, you know what,
they need a new building, and this is a classic
case of a franchise comes to you and says, Listen,
we're not renewing your dealer agreement if you don't do
certain things, which is fine, that's within their purview. And listen,
we have that understanding with them, you know, we partner
(18:01):
with them.
Um, and for Mazda, I just had this gut feeling,
you know what? Mazda's going in a direction that it's
gonna be really hard for them to get there, but
if they can pull it off, I'm a huge fan.
And we are almost the oldest Mazda dealer in the country. Um,
we've been operational in the same family, under the same
family ownership since 1973.
And Mazda only came to the US in 1970. So,
(18:22):
I'm like, we have way deep roots with Mazda. So
my dad, you know, we didn't agree on, do we
spend a chunk of money to build a new facility,
but we had this piece of property in, in Concord,
and it was being used as a wholesale auction site,
not its best and highest use by any stretch.
And I just said, Listen, let me just go for it.
If I buy this from you, Dad, and it fails,
it's not your problem. It'll be on me. So that
(18:43):
was the kicker. He's like, OK. I might be paraphrasing.
I might be paraphrasing. Um, but yeah, so that I
bought Mazda in 2022, uh, and then, uh, from then on,
you know, I was anxious to buy the other dealerships,
and my dad, he came to me a few years
ago and
He kind of sideswiped me by saying, or blindsided is
(19:04):
probably the better way. He didn't actually hit me with
a car. He, he blindsided me by saying he, he
wanted to sell everything. And I, I was shocked. I just, because,
you know, I've been working at this for, at that
0.25 years, and I just didn't see that coming. So,
I was like, All right, well, I want to sell nothing,
so I guess this is the meaning of negotiation. So
we worked hard for, uh, 2.5 years to try to
(19:26):
figure out, you know, how do we
Especially for me, you know, keep the Griponi name on it,
keep that Griponi way of being attached to how we
do things, and of course I could have gotten some
private equity money, maybe found a venture capitalist, partnered with
other dealers, I could have done so many things to
make this a heck of a lot easier.
But call me stubborn, and I've been called that many times.
(19:48):
It just mattered so much to me, especially in light
of researching my great grandparents and their struggles and efforts,
and my grandparents and everybody else. I just thought, you
know what? We still have so much of a story
to tell. This is still Rponi. So, it turned out
we needed just to help my parents meet their retirement goals,
we needed to sell a couple franchises. So we ended
up selling Hyundai and Toyota, um, within the last 6 weeks,
(20:11):
and
That's surely been bittersweet. I mean, I, it's very hard
to say goodbye to 100 people who I work closely with,
and really, you know, based on our mission statement of
trying to create lifelong relationships, we put our team members first,
and that's something I take really seriously. So, so it
hasn't been easy, but, you know, I mean, at some point,
I'll come up for air and realize, OK, we did it. We're,
(20:31):
we're 5th gen is, is in the wings, 4th gen
is at the wheel, and we're gonna be OK, you know.
But right now it's just like, nose to the grindstone,
just work it out and
We have an awesome team at work, so I just,
my job is to support them.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
You mentioned the whole list of things that you could
have done, uh, as, as your dad was winding down his,
his career in the car business and, and what you
didn't mention was you could have sold everything and, and
cashed out. You, you could have cashed out with, I'm
sure what would have been a pretty nice payday, but
you didn't want to go that route.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
No, you know, I've never been, uh, motivated by money. Um, I'm,
I'm extremely motivated by helping to, helping people to reach
their potential. And I'm like, not, I'm a terrible frontline manager.
Let me just put that out there. Everybody at work agrees. Like,
we all know that that's not my job. But I,
what I love is trying to put people in place
(21:28):
who can be the awesome frontline manager, who can help
to lift up all the people around them. So, like,
my job is to be the cheerleader for my executive team.
And I think I'm a good, I think I do
a good job at that, um, but, you know, I just, I,
there are so many types of toxic stress in this world,
and I just don't want work to be one of them.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
You, you said just now that you were a car
dealer that has never been interested in money. You, you
realize I'm recording this, right? Yeah,
Speaker 2 (21:56):
feel free to play that. OK,
Speaker 1 (21:59):
just wanted to be sure.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
Just so we're all clear, money has its purpose. It needs, we, we,
it needs to lubricate the machine, right? We all, and
this is the thing about toxic stress. I want people,
you know, during COVID, we did not mark up our,
our prices over MSRP. Everybody around us seems to have
done that. Um,
I, I did a calculation one time that if we
(22:23):
had charged $2500 extra, which is, was the kind of
the going rate, some of it was way more over
MSRP on every car we sold during that COVID period,
it would've paid for my $12 million Mazda building. And
that's the only time I did that calculation, cause I'm like,
I never should have done that, because I was like, Oh,
this is why, this is why people charge people more money.
But honestly, just in my heart, uh, we've been charging
(22:45):
so far below MSRP for so many years that
That jump for consumers during COVID from what they'd been
used to up to MSRP was already pretty hefty. Never
mind groceries and every other, you know, everyday items. Like, uh, uh,
we have a role to play, and I, I truly
feel like if we can
If we can limit the amount of stress at work
(23:08):
and allow people to go home just better human beings,
better spouses and parents and neighbors and partners, that is like,
job well done for me. OK? That's, that's how I define,
did I do my job today or didn't I? And
part of that too, extends out to the community. Like, why,
just because I can, Should I charge $2500 to $5000 more?
To that person who now, by the way, 5 years in,
(23:31):
if your loans come in due, you're so upside down. Like, the,
it's not funny. It's, it, it, it casts a, a
lasting ripple effect. So, I really, I just feel strongly
that the, in the 4th generation of our company, if
we can really imbue that message into our team, and
our guests in our community,
Like, just take care of each other. It's that simple.
(23:51):
Just be nice and take care of each other, and
don't be greedy, for heaven's sake. Like, stop being greedy, everybody.
And things are just so much easier. And so I've
raised the 5th generation very much so that if they
choose to come into the business, and my son is
currently studying at college to business and finance, to come
in to follow me, hopefully.
And, you know, he's 19, or how old, yeah, he's 19.
(24:12):
So he, anything could change in the next few years,
but he worked there this summer and loved it. And
he was raised to understand, you put people first. Like,
I don't care if you're the slickest finance guy in
the world. I need your heart to be in the
right place for you to be able to take this
business over.
So, we're in good shape. I have the right heart.
My son has the right heart. If my daughters come
into it, they've got the right heart. Um, you know,
I feel really good I'm confident about the 5th generation.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
All right, this is not a business question and this
is not a money question, but as the current steward
of the Griponi name, what keeps you awake at night?
What do you worry about?
Speaker 2 (24:47):
Um, I mean, there's the obvious, like, servicing debt, but
that's boring. Uh, so let's see. What keeps me awake
at night. Um, I can count on one hand, like the,
the times over my career, and it's about 30 years now, roughly,
that I've been in the auto industry, that I didn't
(25:07):
treat someone the right way, and that really bothers me. That,
for sure, keeps me awake. And it's also a great
motivator to not mistreat someone because
I know I'll sleep better. Like, sometimes, you know, situationally,
if I say something that I shouldn't cause I didn't
think first, or I do something that I really thought
was coming from the right place, but in hindsight, I
was like, Well, you didn't consider X, Y, and Z. Uh,
(25:29):
that really bothers me. So, I, I would very much
like to be remembered as someone who cared about her team. And, um, yeah. So,
if I, if it's ever the case that people don't
feel cared about by me, that, that's what keeps me up.
Speaker 1 (25:43):
You've talked a lot about your family, uh, both the,
the 3rd generation and the 5th generation, and, and the
Gripone name has been slapped on a lot of buildings
for 100+ years now in the state of New Hampshire. Uh,
the Gripone legacy is so important to you. You've actually
written a book about the family history.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
I did, yeah. You know, for the 100th anniversary, I
was like, Well, what can I do that's like a
little bit special, but everybody knows this is a really
big deal. And obviously, we could have gotten, you know,
nice jackets or $100 bills or something, you know, they're,
they're the things that like were kind of low hanging fruit.
Then I asked myself, like, what would it, what would
it take if you actually could write a book about
(26:25):
1924 to 2024, and really just categorize, um, I meant
to say catalog, sorry, catalog all that history.
And I started to write it, and I realized, oh
my gosh, there's such a backstory here that I didn't
even know when I started to research it. So the
book actually starts in 1730 with my 5th great grandfather, maybe, uh,
(26:47):
back in southern Italy. He was a stonecutter, and the
other side of the
Family as well. They were peasant farmers. And then it
just traces my great grandparents, like, how did they ever,
how did they meet? How did they get to the US?
How did they raise their kids and all that. And
so the book actually ends at 1924, where I thought
it was going to begin. And the book I'm working
on now will take, you know, will kind of cover
(27:08):
the rest of history. But, but what I was able
to hand to my team members on the night of
our 100th anniversary party was that book. It was like,
Here's our roots. Here's where we come from. And
I just want people to understand, like, there are statistically speaking,
there are a lot of reasons for us not to exist.
You know, 4th generation family business is hard enough, but
especially in the automotive space with all the consolidation we
(27:29):
have and everything else that challenges us on a daily basis.
And so I just want my team to really be
able to wear that with a badge of pride. Like,
you know what? It's no joke that we've been here
101 years now, and it's not by accident. We have
to show up every day, and we have to have
a purpose, and we have to fulfill it. And
And that's what I, I love going to work because
(27:49):
I get to go to a meeting in a couple
hours from now, and I just can't wait to see
my team because they are excited because they're performing well,
and they're taking care of things. And, like, I can't
ask for anything more.
Speaker 1 (28:02):
Without talking about the automotive business at all, talk about
some of the other things that that the Propone name
is involved with and some of the other things that
your company does.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
Sure. Um, you know, I think we're, it's, uh, for
some people, the, the word roponi almost conjures up images of, uh,
community service, as much or more so than it does
cars and trucks. Um, there's just, it's always been part
of the fabric of, of the family and the business
to just help.
Other people in need. And I start with something as
simple as my great grandmother, you know, the stories I
(28:36):
heard of her planting an extra big garden, and I'm
sure a lot of immigrant families did this, but they
lived in a, in a close, you know, Italian north, uh, um,
community in the North Concord, and if you're familiar with
Concord at all.
And, uh, they had lots of Italian neighbors and the
occasional hobo who would stop by, and you know other
people who just needed food, and despite them having 7
(28:57):
kids of their own, they always would try to have
extra for other people. And my grandfather absolutely shared that mentality,
and
You know, he would always, I have a little, little
blurb in the book about it, how every time I
went to visit him in his office at Ford, he
would offer me, like, open the closet, take whatever you want.
It's like expired Pepsis and stuff, but he always made
(29:18):
sure that he had something for us. And that was,
I'm sure, also a product of him being a child of,
of the Depression. You know, he grew up, he and
my grandmother both were born in 1919.
So they had a front row seat to what is
it like to maybe not be able to eat when
you want to eat. And, uh, he was always, it
mattered very much to him that people were fed. So
whenever there was a company barbecue or whatever, he'd like,
(29:41):
joke with the, not even joke, cause like, he would
confide in the staff, like, my wife's not here. I'm
gonna take an extra.
For a hot dog. And, and he would, he would
sort of like, you know, feel bad about it, but
they're like, Mr. Graponi, you paid for the hot dogs.
And he's like, Oh, OK, I can take an extra one,
you know. He was just super down to earth. You know,
by the time I knew him, obviously, he, I think
(30:02):
some of the fire had gone out of him a
little bit, but he was still, I mean, I just
wish we could do business the way he used to
do business. Um, just a handshake and be a person
of your word. And I try to do that every day,
but it turns out you need some
You need paperwork signed and all that other fun stuff
when you buy a car, but it just did seem
like it was a bit easier to transact some business
(30:22):
back then. Uh, yeah, so I think just, just being
able to follow their lead. My parents were always very
very philanthropic, um, they continue to be, and
I was just raised in a house where parents served
on boards, and you hosted fundraising parties and all sorts
of stuff. And I just, that was my normal day.
And I, I didn't know that other kids didn't grow
(30:43):
up like that until I met kids who didn't grow
up like that. And then I realized, OK, like this,
they've made this a priority. It's, it's special to them,
and it definitely is special to me. You know, we
give 5% of our net profit annually to charity, and
that's something that's a big deal for us, and it's
part of our business plan.
Um, so we're involved in a lot of things around
the state, but, um, you know, most especially, I just,
(31:04):
I wanna make sure my team is taken care of.
Anytime they come to us with, hey, my son or
daughter or my grandchild has this going on, we always
say yes. We always try to support our team first,
and I think that, that sends a, an important impactful message,
because then hopefully it helps them to see, you know, how,
how it feels good to help other people. So if
they're not in the position to volunteer or to donate,
(31:26):
you know, they can do it through our volunteer program,
and
They get the day paid to go do something fun
that they wanna do, and then a check is uh
a $250 check is made out to the organization in
their honor, so that
So that they can get the feeling of what it's
like to give. So, there are a lot of ways
of helping, um, and I just, you know, I think
for us, no matter what we sell or don't sell,
(31:49):
if we've sold Toyota, but we get Mazda and Ford
and Honda, like, it doesn't matter what the nameplate is, it,
it matters to me that, that the feeling that, that is,
that comes along with serving others. Um, that's, that's what
matters most.
Speaker 1 (32:02):
I have never considered writing an autobiography because there's absolutely
no interest in in my life story, but were I
to do it, I'm going to use the title The
Occasional Hobo.
Speaker 2 (32:13):
OK.
You have my full permission. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (32:20):
The website is riponi.com.riponi.com can, can link you to all
three dealerships. Amanda Graponi, Osmer, honestly, I interview a lot
of people in the course of any given week, but
rarely do I have an interview that flows so nicely
and so easily, and thank you for being you. Oh,
Speaker 2 (32:37):
well, thank you so much. I really had fun. Thanks
a lot. For
Speaker 1 (32:40):
Let's Move to New Hampshire, I'm Mark Erickson.
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